News Boy shot in back by stray bullet after pleading in video for end to Chicago violence

Last year, 12-year-old Zarriel Trotter spoke out against the violence roiling his Chicago neighborhood.

“I don’t want to live around my community where I’ve got to keep on hearing and hearing: People keep on getting shot, people keep on getting killed,” Trotter said in a public service announcement about the effect of gun violence on the city’s black youth.

The video won an award, but gun violence in Chicago only got worse.

And on Friday, in a tragic and ironic twist, Trotter became one of its latest victims.

Trotter, now 13, was struck by a stray bullet Friday night while walking home after playing basketball, according to the Chicago Tribune. He was shot in the back, close to his spine, and remains in critical condition. No one else was injured, and there have been no arrests so far.

Eerily foreshadowed by the Feb. 2015 video, Trotter’s shooting was not as improbable as it should have been, however.

The teenager was one of more than a dozen people injured in shootings across Chicago on Friday, according to the Tribune. The city has seen a spike in shootings so far in 2016, with shootings nearly double what they were at this point last year and homicides up 84 percent, according to the New York Times.

So far this year, the city is averaging more than seven shootings and one homicide per day.

Trotter’s shooting follows a handful of other high-profile incidents of gun violence, including a shootout on Lake Shore Drive, a drive-by in front of a ritzy downtown hotel, the wounding of three Chicago Police officers during a gun battle with a suspect earlier this month and, most infamous of all, the Nov. 2 gang execution of nine-year-old Tyshawn Lee.

The surge in gun violence is posing a headache for police and for Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, both of whom also face criticism for their handling of police-involved shootings.

Some advocates fear that the bloody winter and spring bodes ill for warmer months, when shootings normally increase.

In early 2015, Chicago advertising agency Burrell Communications Group picked Trotter’s West Side charter school, Catalyst Circle Rock, as the location for a public service announcement about the toll of gun violence on black boys.

In the video, seven of the school’s male students talk about feeling scared and sad as shootings continue around them.

Last year, 12-year-old Zarriel Trotter spoke out against the violence roiling his Chicago neighborhood.

“I don’t want to live around my community where I’ve got to keep on hearing and hearing: People keep on getting shot, people keep on getting killed,” Trotter said in a public service announcement about the effect of gun violence on the city’s black youth.

The video won an award, but gun violence in Chicago only got worse.

And on Friday, in a tragic and ironic twist, Trotter became one of its latest victims.

Trotter, now 13, was struck by a stray bullet Friday night while walking home after playing basketball, according to the Chicago Tribune. He was shot in the back, close to his spine, and remains in critical condition. No one else was injured, and there have been no arrests so far.

Eerily foreshadowed by the Feb. 2015 video, Trotter’s shooting was not as improbable as it should have been, however.

The teenager was one of more than a dozen people injured in shootings across Chicago on Friday, according to the Tribune. The city has seen a spike in shootings so far in 2016, with shootings nearly double what they were at this point last year and homicides up 84 percent, according to the New York Times.

So far this year, the city is averaging more than seven shootings and one homicide per day.

Trotter’s shooting follows a handful of other high-profile incidents of gun violence, including a shootout on Lake Shore Drive, a drive-by in front of a ritzy downtown hotel, the wounding of three Chicago Police officers during a gun battle with a suspect earlier this month and, most infamous of all, the Nov. 2 gang execution of nine-year-old Tyshawn Lee.

The surge in gun violence is posing a headache for police and for Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, both of whom also face criticism for their handling of police-involved shootings.

Some advocates fear that the bloody winter and spring bodes ill for warmer months, when shootings normally increase.

In early 2015, Chicago advertising agency Burrell Communications Group picked Trotter’s West Side charter school, Catalyst Circle Rock, as the location for a public service announcement about the toll of gun violence on black boys.

In the video, seven of the school’s male students talk about feeling scared and sad as shootings continue around them.